Apple adds American Express to mobile wallet partners

We have heard that NFC and a mobile wallet payment system could be on the way to iOS 8 and the iPhone 6. Now, it seems even more likely, with Apple having added two credit card companies to its list of partners with whom the mobile wallet payment system would work.

American Express becomes the newest credit card member of Apple’s soon-to-be-announced mobile wallet payment system, with Visa having already been added prior, sources familiar with the matter have said. Mastercard completes the trio of mobile wallet partners for the Cupertino, California iPhone maker.

These two credit card companies that have become mobile wallet payment partners with Apple demonstrate that Cupertino is clearly working on something involving mobile payments. We’re not surprised, seeing that Apple has filed quite a few patents related to a mobile wallet payment system within the last year or two. At the same time, however, Apple could very well open up its mobile wallet payment system to a few credit card partners and increase the number of partners over the next few years.

Touch ID has become a part of the mobile wallet payment discussion, with a number of individuals stating that Touch ID could become the medium by which iPhone users make and receive payments, similar to Samsung’s fingerprint scanner that provides PayPal integration to do the same.

Despite the Galaxy S5 experience with mobile payments, Google and Android have not been able to provide a large mobile wallet experience for all Android devices with a number of credit card companies. Google Wallet was not as successful as the company had hoped, and Samsung has not yet “flexed its muscles” to the point where it could provide such an experience. Some say that this explains the hesitancy behind the mobile payment wallet release from Cupertino, but other factors could be at play here, too. Even with the release of Apple’s new mobile wallet system, mobile payments as a whole are still a niche activity — even for mobile shoppers.

As with all Apple news that is unconfirmed from Apple itself, we here at Hoops News want to remind you that rumors must always be taken cautiously so that rumors do not transfer into stated facts. A mobile wallet payment system announcement does seem likely for Cupertino this year, although the system will likely lay the foundation for what Apple plans to do later with its over 800 million credit and debit card accounts.

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